Metaphysics as Addressed by Kant and Hume Essay -- Papers Kant Hume Ph

Metaphysics as Addressed by Kant and Hume In the Prolegomena, Kant states that reading David Hume, "awakened him from his dogmatic slumber." It was Hume's An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding that made Kant aware of issues and prejudices in his life that he had previously been unaware of. This further prompted Kant to respond to Hume with his own analysis on the theory of metaphysics. Kant did not feel that Hume dealt with these matters adequately and resolved to pick up where Hume had left off, specifically addressing the question of whether metaphysics as a science is possible. Hume basically asserted in his writings that metaphysics, as a science, is not possible. He specifically drew on the theory of "causality", which is the attempt by people to rationalize situations. These rationalizations deal with the experience of cause and effect. People tend to attribute patterns to things according to their cause and effect. For example, gravity causes the anything that goes up to come down- we have become so used to this principle that we have made a very definitive statement on the subject. Hume however, attacks this principle by claiming that we have not experienced every instance of this matter. It is not that it must come down, but that it happens to come down. He believed that any "all" or "must" statement is not reinforced through reason but through repetition. Because Hume feels this way, he then concludes that metaphysics is not possible. Hume's writing posed an interesting starting off point for Kant's theories. As said before, Kant attributes Hume's writing with waking him from his "dogmatic slumber." He recognizes both Hume's intelligence and the validity of his statements. However, he does n... ...th much like Hume stood by skepticism. He relies blindly on faith to explain a large part of what he is trying to discredit Hume for. It is almost as if he is not making a definitive statement on the existence of metaphysics. Rather, he is caught in the middle, claiming that it may be true in one instance, but not in another. Kant directly deals with the problems presented in Hume's analysis of metaphysics. Where Hume stops his line of thinking and becomes skeptical as to the existence of metaphysics as a science, Kant picks up. He proceeds to analyze both the validity of metaphysics as a science and a force in our lives. Turning to the methods of other credible men in the scientific field- such as Copernicus- Kant develops a whole new approach to looking at the world. However, like Hume, Kant encounters an obstacle and does not find a solution for it.

Book Report Psychology Essay

The famous Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs and self actualization is a subject of study of the past as much as the subject of study by many psychologists, practicing managers and behavioral scientists even today for its relevance and profound impact on the lives and understanding of human behavior. Maslow, in his famous book â€Å"the Farther Reaches of Human Nature† describes various aspects of the Human Nature and tries to impress upon the fact that it is possible for all human beings to attain that ‘higher peak’ and transcend. Maslow suggests that to get the best out of every human being, a society needs to be led by people, managers and leaders who are compensated not by the money but more by the ‘higher pay’ where work itself becomes a passion for love, reward and pay. The book also brings out clearly the need for people who are rich and in higher positions to help people surrounding them achieve self actualization. Not by teaching, imposing, interfering with what they are but by helping them to be what they really want Being, By helping them transcend through knowledge and understanding using big brother love and the Taoistic model of non interference. A good clinical therapy is to help a client unfold, break through the defenses against self knowledge, recover himself or herself and to get to know himself or herself. It is possible to stay transcended on a plateau in stead of experiencing peak as one off momentary and transient experiences. Counseling More and more individuals and families seek psychiatric help for dysfunctional behaviors today than in the past. Family dysfunction may seriously impede children’s development. Parents in such families are struck by pain from their past, fear of the present, and resistance to change. Many apparent disorders or diseases of the body are linked to the psyche and are categorized under psychosomatic diseases. Many individuals and families are now exposed to new knowledge and understanding of the human behavior making them prepared to seek guidance as needed from a qualified counselor. There are counselors handling various issues such as performance, marriage, alcoholism, drug addiction, education etc. A normal school student who is not faring well in math may be a candidate for counseling. By identifying the fears and obstacles faced by the student, the counselor can help the student unravel the fact that everybody is capable of understanding and solving math problems. Individual performance and team performance is an important aspect addressed by all progressive organizations. By looking at performance issues closely, a counselor can help business organizations identify and address the issues squarely so that the performance bottlenecks are removed. Similarly, issues in family surround marriage, education, children’s welfare etc. To keep a family together or resolve a dispute amicably in a family has become the subject of many professional counselors. By making the members of the family realize the higher purpose of life, by making them realize and thus actualize the ‘peak’ in the family, a counselor can unravel and untie the shackles holding them moving forward. The family counselors do not interfere, teach, provide medicine but help the family identify on their own what the real issues are, what would make them happy and what would help them peak and actualize. By looking at family as a system, the counselors view family as a bundle of do’s and don’ts and unspoken rules. Thus any psychological symptoms are viewed as manifestations of dysfunctional family and not the family member alone. The family system then becomes the target for treatment and not the family member. A well trained psychotherapist tries to understand and identify the correlation between the psychological symptoms such as a lack of interest in studies of a child and the family dysfunction. Then only does the counselor provide an appropriate intervention. By keeping the Maslow’s self actualization model, a successful counselor would not interfere with the family, be a teacher or prescribe some medication but tries to bring the focus of the family on the real issues and make them owners and problem solvers while the counselor provides needed help along the way. By making them believe that it is possible to solve the issues, the counselor provides a mirror for the family to look at themselves and seek answers to their real issues. Faith, hope and love are the components of Malsow’s self actualization model. Communication and recounting the past successes will help the family to catapult to the next ladder in actualization and not necessarily reaching the ‘peak’ itself. By recognizing the fact that the ideal is a moving target and is the ultimate goal in life, a counselor can help the family focus on the path to that goal , the goal of self realization, self actualization and the ultimate ‘peak’.

Rhyme And Rythm in Blakes A Divine Image Essay - 822 Words

Rhyme And Rythm in Blakes A Divine Image In A Divine Image, Blake uses several techniques and literary devices, to transmit his thoughts about social injustice, cruelty and human nature, Rhyme and rhythm are two of the main features in this poem this poem is the rhythm affect the whole mood, tone and meaning of the poem. The poet has chosen different methods to give the poem specific sounds that affect the pace and structure of the rhythm. The structure of the first stanza helps us understand the relationships between the four aspects of human nature presented, cruelty, jealousy, terror and secrecy. The first and third lines start with the main word, while in the second and fourth ones the words come preceded by the word And.†¦show more content†¦On a deeper level, this way of structuring can represent the inflexibility and stiffness of these negative human aspects, like immovable objects buried deep inside human nature. We can see that the most outstanding rhythmical feature of this stanza is foregrounding. In fact, every line of the poem has the word human in it. This excessive repetitiveness, together with the characteristics described, leads the reader to render them exclusively human, the result of our intellectual superiority over nature. The stress of the lines fall in the word human in every case in the second stanza, achieved by the foregrounding device. The repetition of the consonant sounds plays a very important part in the rhythm of the second stanza. We notice that the consonant sound most frequently repeated is the f sound, a sharp and keen one, for example in ? is forged iron, ?form a fiery forge or ?face a furnace sealed. This repetitiveness of the f sound together with the image of a furnace and iron being forged, suggests a very strong image of fire that affects the tone and mood of the poem. The climax of this image is achieved in the third lines when the image of the furnace is presented. Interestingly enough we can find juxtaposition of the words face and furnace as these dont usually go together, for the heat of a furnace would burn someones face. This suggests the somewhat chaotic human nature referring to jealousy.